A quick note: as with all things on my GeoPlanIT blog currently, this post hasn’t been paid for… but if you have anything interesting you’d like me to write about or see… drop me a message.

So I saw this video on my LinkedIn feed and thought others might find it interesting, well worth a 27 minute tea break to watch.  In this episode (I may need to go watch the previous ones too) they bring in Damian Fennell the Managing Director of CityScapeDigital (who we at Garsdale Design have done some work for) to chat about the rise of VR in the built environment sector.

If you’re in the design professions or gaming world this is a nice easy to watch video from a company called Lucas a Fit Out and Finishing Specialist. Here the presenters visit CityScape Digital’s office and talk to the MD about the increasing use of gaming technology and Virtual Reality in the design of the built environment

Nice Studio!

It’s going to be the way the whole process works

Damian Fennell – Managing Director CityScapeDigital

There’s some interesting discussion and I really am on-board with Damian’s observation about the direction of travel for the design professions here.  He sees the “adventurous and innovative” doing VR and design now but in a few years it will just be the ‘defacto’ part of the process.  Just another tool to help the consultant and client get their designs working.  That’s what I see from all the CityEngine training I do at least!

The Lucas Show 4 – Virtual Design and Construction with CityScape Digital (27 minutes)

this is the logical conclusion

Damian Fennell – Managing Director CityScapeDigital

A discussion on the merits of designing in VR are interesting, here I think Damian’s idea of allowing architects to sketch in VR and see their results generate certainly fit in with the technologies we have (think CityEngine capabilities in Unreal Studio for example) click and change building heights or facades etc.   

This kind of 3D design/sketch work has been done by people I follow on twitter a notable person I follow Liz Edwards does amazing things with 3D sketch tools like ‘Tiltbrush‘.  But she also has some examples of wondering around a first person shooter like Fallout fighting her way to a good view point and then doing art work using as if she brought her paints into Fallout.  People who know me know that I like seeing what other professions are doing and at the moment people in the built environment industry are chasing the gaming and entertainment worlds!  Perhaps this is the sort of thing designers who are used to paper would like doing?

Warning there is mention of the Digital Twin in this show for those who have a scepticism overload.  It’s not buzzword if used correctly (in this case it is!) right?

For those taking notes CityScape Digital and Lucas mention working on projects in the Elephant Park regeneration scheme to deliver amongst other things 2,500+ homes.

Finally a really interesting point towards the end brought up about VR not being just for designers but being useful to the planning and consultation process.   Would your stakeholders being able to walk around a proposal reduce anxiety about a new development and reduce objections?  Would VR tackle the idea that people imagine the worst of a development if they can’t understand all the submitted drawings and documentation? 

A great video worth a watch.

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